We'll Make This Home
by skystar234
Summary: This wasn't the first time in Jenna's life that terror had rained from the sky, so the Battle for New York was just another day at work. It was, however, the first time that her lack of self-preservation in the face of that danger caught the eye of a superhero that had been buried in ice for 70 years. It's a good thing they both needed someone to get their bearings.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Yes, why am I starting another story when I'm bad at keeping up with the ones I already have to work on? Well, the more stories I have going, the more compelled I am to keep writing up chapters, if only so it doesn't feel like I'm giving one story special treatment (yes I'm treating them like they're my children). Besides, if I have the ideas, I may as well start, then if I hit a roadblock on one I have another story to fall back to. Now that I've graduated and have a more regular schedule, maybe I'll be better at keeping up with chapters. Maybe not. We'll see. But I'd still like to know what you all think, so favorite, follow, review, hit me up for a chat if you like! Also, disclaimer, I do not own anything Marvel. I have creative control of Jenna and her team, maybe a few other characters as we move along, but no recognizable Marvel figure.

 **Chapter One:**

It was her day off.

That was all Jenna could think about as she stood on the New York sidewalk, staring up at the sky like everyone else as a shimmery, blue portal opened to release hundreds of…aliens…from outer space.

It was her _day off_.

That was all she really had time to think before the first explosion threw her to the ground.

Still a little stunned, Jenna pushed herself up on her elbows and stared around. The Sidewalk she'd been standing on was ripped up, the air was thick with clouds of dust, and though her ears were ringing, she could faintly hear people screaming around her.

She had seen this all before.

Jenna pushed herself up, stumbling slightly, and reached for her phone. She had to call the guys, she had to get her gear. Baker and O'Malley were on duty today, she knew that for sure, but who else was in? Noyd? Barrett? Savcic? She leaned against the building, fumbling with the touch-screen buttons on her phone, cursing herself for upgrading to the newest Stark model. 'Damn Tony Stark, always needs his stuff to be ten times harder to use than it needs to be,' she thought furiously to herself. She held the phone up to her ear as she looked up at the street, eyes wide at the destruction.

"Grant! Where the hell are you?!"

Ah, so they hadn't left yet.

"I'm downtown on the corner of 39th and Park," she said, hurriedly, pulling herself back into the alcove of the building next to her. "Sir, it's bad. The crew needs to get down here now - it's chaos, I have no idea how many civilians may be trapped. Cap, this is like -"

"Looks that way." Captain Astin said quietly before brusquely returning to the immediate concern. He couldn't pause at the past now. "I've called everyone back in and Pearce is getting the truck ready. Hang on tight, and we'll meet you there."

"Yes sir." Jenna kept her ear pressed to her phone even after the call had been dropped. She hadn't realized until that moment that she was shaking, the phone bumping against her cheek as she tried to steady herself.

She peered out from around her corner. A bus had overturned across the street from her, and she could hear cries coming from inside. The aliens (dear Lord, _aliens_ ) were zooming past on some sort of air vehicle. If anything moved, they shot it.

Jenna's eye found the bus again, and the second there was a gap in the flying vehicles, she launched herself out of the alcove and across the street to the bus. She circled quickly to the back and started pulling on the emergency door, the trapped passengers quickly gathering around to push with her.

"Damn," She muttered, digging her heels into the ground. "Really could use Hilda right about now."

Her eyes met the eyes of a little girl inside the bus, whose arms were wrapped arrow d her mother with tears streaming down her face. "It's okay!" She called, not sure if anyone could hear her over the explosions and ringing in their ears. She started glancing around at the street earnestly, gaze falling on a loose pipe a few feet away. "It's okay," she called again. "I'm going to get you out, just hold on one second!"

She dashed out to the pipe, stumbling a little over the cracks in the pavement. 'Potholes are going to be a real bitch now,' she though absently as she wrapped her hands around the pipe. Thankfully it wasn't too heavy, and in another stroke of luck it had bent at the end, which would hopefully help it function as a crowbar on the door.

As Jenna turned back to the bus, one of the aliens landed almost directly in front of her, hissing and snarling as she shrieked. She hadn't realized it while they were flying around, but these things were _tall_ , at least 6 and a half feet tall. She was strangely reminded of the cicadas that used to plague her childhood camps - a crusty shell with crackling joints that was just continuously making noise.

The alien snarled and started advancing on her, holding some sort of staff with sharp points on the end. Jenna backed up swiftly, raising the pipe up over her head like a bat before tripping over a chunk of concrete and falling on her back. Her heart was pounding as she stared up at the alien. 'I cannot believe that this is how I'm going to die,' she thought. 'After everything…I am going to get killed by a freaking alien.'

The alien raised its staff, snarling at her as the tip glowed blue. Before Jenna could even scream, a red, white and blue blur came in between her and the alien, causing it to shriek out again and move to sweep the staff upwards. In the blink of an eye the arm holding the staff hit the ground and the alien toppled over backwards with a final death screech.

Jenna's wide eyes moved form the dead alien to the red, white and blue blur, now standing still. It turned out to be a man, wearing a suit that looked like someone had taken an American Flag challenge on Project Runway, and holding a round shield that was also painted red, white and blue. He turned around and Jenna could see that he was wearing a blue hood that had eyeholes cut out, but still covered half of his face. It didn't mask those bright blue eyes though, which were assessing her quickly. "Ma'am, are you alright?" He asked, holding out a hand to help her up.

Jenna grabbed his hand, letting herself be pulled to her feet, before nodding numbly. "Yeah, I'm okay." Her eyes fell on two other people, a red-headed woman in a black catsuit and a man holding a bow and arrow, and just behind them was the bus. Jenna jerked around to find the pipe lying where she'd dropped it. She yanked it up and ran to the bus door again.

"Ma'am, you've got to get off the street!" Shouted the man who'd saved her. The other man shot an arrow into the neck of another alien who landed near them as all three ran for cover by the bus.

"There are people trapped in here!" Jenna snapped, trying to wedge the pipe in between the door and the bus side. She could almost get the edge of the pipe inside, but it was just too wide to get in all the way.

The blue-gloved hand gently landed on her shoulder and pushed her to the side, and the man took her place, putting both hands in the crack Jenna had been working on and wrenching the doors open himself.

Normally Jenna would be staring at this guy's back, jaw dropped, because _he pulled the door open_ like it was a _piece of paper what the actual hell_ , but almost immediately he was handing her the little girl out of the bus and she took her on autopilot. The little girl wrapped her arms around Jenna's legs as her mom was helped out, and then the red-head was directing them into the nearest subway entrance.

Just as the last person had exited the bus, another explosion rocked the ground. The man turned back to Jenna, grabbing her elbow. "Now I'm really going to have to insist that you leave!" They both glanced towards the subway, but more aliens had started flooding in. The arrow man was shooting them at a ridiculous speed and the red-head had picked up one of their spears to shoot.

"It's okay, we've got this!" She yelled back over her shoulder. "Go!"

Immediately the star-spangled man grabbed Jenna around the waist and picked her up.

"Hey!" She squealed, trying to wiggle down. "What are you doing?!"

"Trust me, it's faster!"

"What the hell are you-" And he was off.

Holy _shit_ he was fast.

The guy had raced down two blocks to the police cars set up as a mini, if slightly useless, blockade. Several cars had been over-turned, sot he guy leapt up onto one and walked on top of the nearest cop car to two officers standing there before setting her down.

"You need men in these buildings," he said without any prelude. "There are people still inside and they're going to be running right into the line of fire. You take them into the basements r through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th."

The cops just stared at this guy, this ridiculously patriotic looking guy who was just telling these NYPD cops what to do. Even Captain Astin couldn't get away with that.

"Why the hell should I listen to you?" One cop asked.

Before anyone could respond Jenna felt herself getting thrown at the cops. One caught her as she shrieked, almost falling over. When she looked back, the flag man was holding his shield up as two aliens landed on the cars behind them. He then punched on in what Jenna could only assume was its face, before jumping up and spinning to kick another one away. He then threw the shield so that it ricocheted off a third alien's head and bounced back to his hand.

Now it was time for Jenna's jaw to really drop.

The two cops looked at each other for a moment before one pulled up his radio. "I need men in the buildings to lead people down and away from the streets. We're going to set up a perimeter all the way down 39th Street."

The two cops raced off, leaving Jenna and the flag men at their cars. The man got down off the roof and put a hand on Jenna's shoulder. "You should follow them, get somewhere covered." He said, glancing back to where a giant green monster had just handed on a bunch of aliens at once. "Just get safe."

As he started running off, Jenna finally got her voice back. "Who even are you?" She yelled. What kind of man dressed like a walking flag, gave orders to cops, and punched aliens in the face?

He paused, half turned back to her, and shrugged with a small smile. "I'm, uh, Captain America." And with that, he took off running back towards the thick of the fighting.

Jenna stood there, staring at the swarm of aliens that seemed to be distracted by the guy - Captain America - and his friends, only vaguely noticing Tony Stark fly overhead in his Iron Man suit. Iron Man, a bow man, a hulking green monster, aliens, and a guy who she was pretty sure died back in World War Two? Jenna was starting to think she'd just never woken up that morning, that this was all still some really insane dream.

She didn't have long to dwell on it though. Aliens were still shooting in her general direction, and people were still running around on the street. Jenna barely had time to duck before a stray shot flew over her head, and with that her mind was back on the situation at hand. Two police officers were shepherding people into the nearest subway station, so Jenna made her way carefully to the opposite side of the street to guide others.

"Head to the nearest subway entrance or basement!" She called, aiming people the right direction as they dashed past. "Get to cover quickly!"

Just as she had cleared an alcove of people covering in the shadows, sirens started blaring, and Jenna could not have been more relieved to see Engine 97 pulling up the street, Ian's head poking out of the top.

The fire truck pulled to a stop cross from Jenna and all at once Ian, Brady, Lucas and Gary were spilling out of the back, Brady holding a helmet in his hands and Captain Astin climbing out of the front with Naomi. Jenna ran to the truck, head down, and was immediately pulled to the shelter of the doors.

"Jesus Grant, off all the days you had to take off!" Brady yelled jokingly, but his eyes were wide and roaming over the ripped up streets and aliens swarming like bees.

"Yeah, well, I always wanted a front row seat to the real-life _Independence Day."_ Jenna said dryly.

Brady handed her the helmet and Ian had grabbed her gear, allowing her to shimmy into the firesuit. Captain Astin looked out over the chaos before turning back to Jenna. "So what's the situation, Grant?"

Jenna tugged her helmet on and pointed to 30th street. "The police are working on setting up the perimeter all the way down 39th. The priority right now needs to be getting all civilians off the street and into the subway or a basement, anything to keep them out of the way."

"What about the aliens?" Alphonse said, standing in the door of the truck. "What are we supposed to do about them?"

As if in response, the red and gold flash of Iron Man zoomed by, blowing up on an alien speeder on his way. Jenna jerked her thumb towards him. "There's a team on that." She said simply. "We just want to make sure they can worry about fighting - we'll worry about search and rescue."

The crew all glanced at each other, nerves frayed, before Captain Astin nodded.

"All right. Everyone pair up, two to a building. Make sure everyone gets out and into the subway. Stay with your partner!"

As Jenna and Brady ran to the nearest office, she glanced back over her shoulder down the street, where the circle of aliens was swarming. She could just barely make out a flash of blue in the middle of the swarm, but there was no time to dwell on it.

Pausing was dangerous. It was time to go to work.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** So I don't own any of the Avengers or Marvel properties…sadly…but I do own Jenna and her squad. Actually I've based some of them on people I know. I am working a new job so even though I haven't fallen behind on this story (like I have with my others…), updates may be sporadic. We also happen to live in a golden age of television and film, which doesn't really help my focus. But anyway, review to let me know how I'm doing, and I hope you enjoy!

 **Chapter Two:**

 **"** They were going to nuke us!"

Jenna sighed and leaned back in her seat, staring at the newscaster on television as Gary paced behind the couch ranting. Brady and Ethan sat on either side of her, with Dakota lying on his stomach like a six-year-old and Naomi leaning in the doorway. The ticker tape at the bottom of the screen rolled across, screaming the message "OFFICIALS LAUNCHED NUCLEAR WEAPON DURING "INCIDENT".

Jenna snorted. 'The Incident'. She supposed that calling it an alien invasion still sounded weird and ridiculous, more like a science fiction movie than real life, but that had been what happened, and seriously, 'The Incident'? That made it sound like some big cover-up story, one that was going to drag out all of the crazy conspiracy theorists who thought that the moon landing was faked.

"A nuke! At the island of Manhattan! At over 8 million people! Including us!"

Brady's head fell back against the couch. "Man, would you give it a rest already?"

"No I will not give it a rest, MY GOVERNMENT TRIED TO NUKE ME!"

"To be fair I'm pretty sure it's a separate section of the government." Ethan pointed out, pulling up a couple of news articles on his laptop. "The World Security Council, right? That's more than just the American government."

"Oh GOOD, so MULTIPLE governments tried to nuke us. How COMFORTING."

"Stop pacing, Protzman, you'll exhaust yourself before we even get to work." Captain Astin said, causing everyone in the room to look towards the door. He already had all of his gear on except his helmet, which was tucked under his arm.

"We have a grid now?" Naomi asked, standing up and starting to move towards the garage door.

"We do. We're headed back to where we found Grant - a couple of buildings on 39th and Park have been really badly damaged, some are even down. We'll take care of any fires and issues, but it's primarily search and rescue right now, clearing a bit of debris."

Everyone got up from their seats and hustled towards the garage. Jenna stopped in the doorway after everyone else had left, hands on hips. "Do we have a missing person list, or anything to shoot for?"

Astin sighed and scratched his chin. "Hard to say. We have a list of people living in the buildings we'll cover, but it was the middle of the day. A bunch of them could've been home for lunch, or they could've been out at work." He paused. "The streets are plastered with 'Have You Seen Me's. I was hoping I'd never have to see that again in my lifetime."

"You and me both." Jenna said quietly.

The two allowed themselves one brief moment of quiet, of remembrance, before straightening up and heading for the garage. There was a long day ahead of them.

 **WMTHWMTHWMTHWMTHWMTHWMTHWMTHWMThWMTHWMTHWMTHWMTHWMTH**

Even though S.H.I.E.L.D. had asked (well, more like ordered) the Avengers to stay inside, and out of sight, it just wasn't in Steve's nature to sit around while people needed help. Since Stark Tower was still offline (despite Tony's best and frustrated efforts), all he had to do was slip on a baseball cap and sunglasses to slide out of the front door.

Since Stark Tower had been ground zero, just stepping outside showed Steve a level of destruction he hadn't been prepared for. He hadn't noticed during the battle (he'd been focused on something slightly more pressing), but just confining the aliens to six blocks had still caused a lot of destruction. Only two days had passed, but since most of the roadblocks had been cleared, the working crowd was starting to trickle back onto the sidewalks. Steve was grateful for this at first - it made it easier for him to go unnoticed - but when he saw how cautious everyone was, how they slowly walked down the sidewalk with their hands on a swivel, expecting another attack, his chest tightened a little.

He'd been in a war before, but he'd never seen people in his own country so afraid of the place where they lived.

He found himself back at 39th and Park, where several firetrucks had set up shop. At least three teams were gathered, and Steve could see a couple of civilians gathered as well - volunteers, probably. Glancing around, Steve stepped into the group, near the back, and listened as the firefighter in charge started directing the crew and civilians.

"These buildings were mostly apartment complexes, so be especially careful when shifting debris. Not only do we want you all to be safe, but there could be civilians trapped." The officer paused. "There's also a chance that you'll come across some injuries or casualties. Our EMTS -" He gestured to several firefighters standing near the engines - "will respond if you find injuries, but DO NOT attempt to extract anyone from a dangerous spot yourself. And if you find any casualties, call for me, Captain Wyatt, or Lieutenant Grant." At this, he gestured to the man and woman on either side of him, dressed in full gear. "We have a list of missing civilians from this area and will work on notifications, as well as their safe removal."

The chief stared at the crowd of volunteers, and his eyes were cold and hard like ice. "We appreciate you all for taking the time to help after the Incident, especially when I'm sure you'd like to be home with your families. But let me be clear - my crew, as well as Trucks 92 and 84, are in charge. Do what they tell you, or head on home. We don't have room for civilian heroism."

Steve glanced around at the crowd, who were all murmuring to each other, but no one moved to leave. Steve didn't either.

The captain looked satisfied. "Alright. We've split the area into a grid. I will take Engine 84 and civilians with the last names A through H. Captain Wyatt has Engine 92 and I through P civilians. Engine 97 and the rest of you civilians, you're with Lieutenant Grant."

The group of firefighters all split off towards their respective leaders. Steve stared over the crowd at the two remaining leaders, trying to read a name tag or something to let him know which one was 'Grant'. The woman stepped forward. "All right, whoever fell under the heading of 'the rest of you', follow me."

Steve started. He knew that voice. He stared over the head sof the group, squinting slightly to focus on her face. He definitely knew her from somewhere…

"Okay guys, gather around." Lieutenant Grant said, stopping the group in a large, roped off square to the left of the block. There were large chunks of concrete strewn about, and every step Steve took puffed up little clouds of dust. Two dump trucks were waiting nearby. "We're going to work on clearing as much debris as we can." Grant said, gesturing towards the trucks. "We've got some hammers to break bigger chunks, we're just going to move as much as we can towards the trucks. My fire team and I will be scattered around to deal with any downed lines, leaks, or fires. Like Captain Astin said, if you find anyone, come and get me." She glanced around at the group, mostly comprised of men. "And, also, please don't try to strain yourselves. The hospitals have enough to deal with without some overconfident civilian trying to assert his manly dominance and throwing out his back."

There were a few chuckles, including one from Steve. The group started splitting up into pairs and threes, wandering over to whatever piles of rocks they felt like they could handle. Steve placed himself behind one of the bigger groups so that he could work on some of the larger chunks without drawing attention to himself. Sure, he was out in public, but he wasn't about to draw extra questions his way. S.H.I.E.L.D. would probably be pretty upset with him, not to mention some of the other Avengers who were used to working behind the scenes. Banner had barricaded himself inside Stark's labs in the tower, and he was only half sure that Romanoff and Barton had left their new rooms to get food in the entire time he'd been there.

As a couple of hours passed, Steve found that he was actually enjoying himself a bit. Ever since he'd woken up from the ice, he'd been feeling…aimless. He'd had no idea what to do or where to go. When Loki had attacked, he'd reacted - it was just in his system, since he was used to being in a war. Then, after it was all over, he was right back to where he'd started. This work - hard, manual labor with a goal - was a breath of fresh air, something to do that gave him a purpose.

He barely noticed that the sun was starting to set, that the crew had set up large LED lights to keep working after it had gotten dark. Several of the other volunteers started trickling away, and some of the firefighters began to join them. Steve, however, kept up his rhythm. Break the rock, carry it to the truck. Break the rock, carry it to the truck. Break the rock…

"Hey, buddy, are you planning on sticking around all night?"

Steve started, almost dropping the large rock he was carrying on his foot. He glanced back over his shoulder to see Lieutenant Grant, helmet under her arm, watching him with a slight smile. "It's getting pretty dark. I'm sure you want to go home and get some rest."

Steve shrugged and started walking towards the truck with his rock. "I'm alright, I can keep going." He glanced back at the area in which they'd been working - it looked like there was barely a dent. "There's a lot to do."

Grant's eyes softened. "We're not going to clear all of this up in a day." She said gently. "And if you try to do it all quickly, you'll wear yourself out before you can help more."

Steve smirked. "Oh, I don't tire that easily." He set the rock down on the truck bed, which was still at least half empty. He turned back to Grant and tilted his head. He still felt like he recognized her from somewhere, but he had no idea where he would have run into her. He hadn't exactly been touring the city, and she obviously wasn't a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

"Well I admire your stamina." Grant grinned. She gestured to the nearly empty site. "I am going to insist that you head out, though, we don't want people working after dark with no one around. Just in case something bad happens. If you really want, you can come back tomorrow."

Steve sighed - he would have been much happier to work a little longer, really wearing himself out - but fell into step beside her as the walked back towards the exit.

"Thank you for coming out to help." Grant said, shifting her helmet to the other arm. "It really means a lot when volunteers come out."

Steve shrugged. "It's the least we can do, right? I mean, this is our city. We can all pitch in to help fix it."

Grant grinned. "True, but it's still nice to see people actually doing something, instead of just saying so. You have a name, Endurance Man?"

Steve chuckled and made a mental note to never let that name so much as occur to Stark - it definitely sounded like one he'd enjoy adding to his list of nicknames. "Uh, my name is Steve, Lieutenant."

Grant smiled. "Steve, then. You can call me Jenna, I'm off the clock." She gestured to her uniform. "It just takes me awhile to take it all off." She looked around at the piles of rocks, pipes, and twisted metal. Her eyes darkened. "Were you here, during the Incident?"

Steve had to actively keep himself from wincing. "Uh, yeah. I was working." Not technically a lie.

Jenna laughed. "Sorry for that. It was actually my day off till the crew picked me up." She stared sadly towards the sky that the downed building would've once blocked. "I had hoped I would never see anything like this again."

Again? Steve wanted to ask what she meant by that, but he stopped himself. Anything on the scale of what had just happened would probably be common knowledge, and not something he should've had to ask about. Instead he focused on the first part of her answer. "Sounds like a crummy day off."

Jenna laughed. "Yeah, well, it wasn't totally worthless. You know the walking American Flag that was helping the, uh…what is it that the news is calling them…the Avengers?"

Steve choked. "Oh yeah, I saw him on the news."

"He was fighting where I was, at least for a little while." Jenna said. "The guy must kick butt whenever he's challenged to a round of pool, he's got an impressive grasp of angles with that shield he has."

 _"_ _There are people trapped in here!" "What are you doing?!" "Who even are you?"_

"Steve? You okay?"

He didn't realize he'd stopped walking until he saw Jenna looking back at him. Of course, she looked different with all the firefighter gear on, but it was definitely the girl he'd met on Park Street. Well, that explained why she was so insistent on getting people out of the bus before getting herself to cover. She saved people for a living.

He realized he hadn't said anything for a few minutes. "Uh, yeah. I just realized, that was the very thick of the fighting, wasn't it? Where the Avengers were?"

Jenna nodded. "I know. Just my luck, right, being at that ATM when aliens rain down from the sky?"

Luck…Steve wondered if that was the right term for it.


End file.
